Sunday, April 25, 2010

This is the famous Thepvongs family recipe for a dessert that San's Dad's Mom used to make when he was a kid. Coconut filled doughballs with coconut on the outside.

Make the dough.
Add water and glutinous rice flour and knead until it's a play dough or bread dough consistency. Same dialogue: "More water." "Too much water." "More flour." "Wow we have a lot." We used 1.5 bags of flour, don't use more than 1 bag if you can help it.

Make the filling.
Add one full bag of regular grocery store coconut. Some palm sugar. A little water. Cook on high until brown but not too dry.

Assembly the balls.

Roll the coconut filling into balls around no more than 1/2 inch diameter. Try for smaller.

Roll the white dough into balls then flatten like thick small pancake.

Push the coconut filling ball into the flattened dough ball and shape the dough around the filling and into a ball again. Don't punch holes in it, completely cover the filling.

Drop the stuffed balls into boiling water in a large pot, cook until the ball floats.

Roll in coconut. As it comes out of the water, roll in unsweetened coconut flakes.

Eat. Had a great picture of the Snackpig with a whole coconut ball shoved in her mouth but she wouldn't let me post it. Here's roughly what it looked like.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Interesting, was testing the ability to post from a Google Doc to a blog. Seems to work, any good stuff to add to the list? Was just updating it for a friend who's visting.

1. Caracas Arepa Bar-Venezuelan corn cake sandwich things. Always a line, but well worth the wait. They have a restaurant and a separate take out area with seating nextdoor.
http://www.caracasarepabar.com/

3. Super Taste-Hand pulled Noodles, served out of metal mixing bowls. Last time I went, only me and my friend were women, everyone else was a chinese man eating alone. they didn't have any drinks either. just noodles out of the metal bowl.
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/super-taste/

4. Shake Shack-Danny Meyer's Burger heaven, everyone raves about it. Always a line in the summer, there's even a live camera so you can see how bad the line will be. Its outdoor seating with heat lamps only so don't go when its raining. There's an upper west side location now, but I've never been.
http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/

5. Indian galore-Curry hill, home of Kalustyans, worlds greatest spice store. I highly recommend going out of your way, just to go get spices.
Tiffin Wallah has both northern and southern indian specialties and Roomali has Kati rolls, more cafeteria style.

7. Ramen Bars (Rai Rai Ken, Minca, Ippudo)-there's a few in ny, they are pretty small, but i think we can find something to squeeze us in. all small, all good.

8. Roasting plant for coffee-there's a linux-powered robot that roasts your coffee in the window, hopefully you can catch it as its working. otherwise, your beans will be robotically commanded to the grinder for that freshly brewed cup. two locations now, one in lower east, one in the village.

http://www.roastingplant.com/

9. Artichoke Pizza-Specialty is a slice of artichoke pizza. no seats, this was all the rage a while ago. its like spinach dip on a pizza. no seating really, just a line and a take out place.

www.artichokepizza.com

10. Dessert-Dessert Truck sits near nyu and opens at night until it runs out. desserttruck.com and there's also the chikalicious dessert bar that takes forever to get in and serves a tasting menu of dessert. but there's a take out area across the street that has a few cookies and cakes. http://www.chikalicious.com/

11. Brooklyn Flea-Pupusas and Huaraches. Out to the burbs for a flea market and some salvadorian food. they have local organic icecream and juice vendors too. (closed for winter)

12. Momofuku Milk Bar-I would never go to NY again without a visit here. David Chang empire, see note below, its a bakery with some standup counter space. Get the pork buns, get the banana cake. The crack pie is what its known for. they put random ingredients in each item, and it turns out amazing.

13. Korean fried chicken-Bon Chon Chicken. Its in Ktown, upstairs above a pizza joint. Its a bar that serves pricey beer and liquor, but the chicken is fantastic. Get wings, and go half half with the soy garlic and spicy.

14. Octopus Balls-Great Japanese snack, apparently it's called Otafuku (http://www.yelp.com/biz/otafuku-new-york), we just always called it the octopus ball stand on 9th bet 2nd and 3rd.